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National Library of Wales, MS 4811D . Previously published:
Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of
Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), I, pp. 324–326 [in
part; misdated 20 November 1797].Dating note: 12 November was a Sunday in
1797, and therefore probably the day on which Southey wrote this letter.

These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer

For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare
Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New
York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the
British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the
Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the
Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University;
the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton
Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the
National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer
Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury
St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of
Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and
Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.

A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the
English Department of Nottingham Trent University.

All quotation marks and apostrophes have been changed: " for “," for ”, ' for ‘, and ' for ’.

Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed.

Because of web browser variability, all hyphens have been typed on the U.S. keyboard.

Dashes have been rendered as a variable number of hyphens to give a more exact rendering of their
length.

Southey's spelling has not been regularized.

Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded
in brackets.

& has been used for the ampersand sign.

£ has been used for £, the pound sign

All other characters, those with accents, non-breaking spaces, etc., have been encoded in HTML entity
decimals.

All the blunders concerning CokeEdward Coke (1552–1643; DNB), Commentarie upon Littleton (1628), the first part of
his four part Institutes of the Laws of England
(1628–1644). will soon be over I hope, my letter to Wynnstay, & what I have this day
written to Sancho will explain them — & the book will soon be here I
suppose.

For my little poem in the Magazine. ‘Hannah, a Plaintive Tale’ was published in the Monthly
Magazine, 4 (October 1797), 287. From 1799, it was incorporated
into Southey’s sequence of ‘English Eclogues’ and retitled ‘The
Funeral’. PhilipsSir Richard
Phillips (1767–1840; DNB), author, publisher and
proprietor of the Monthly Magazine. had been
some year & half importuning me for my name, & I did not like
the appearance of pride in refusing it. the piece pleased me. look at the word
very as there used again — it occurs twice — & you will find that in the
last place it is used as an adjective, & no other word could so well
supply it. in the first — it scarcely — even to my own ear seems expletive “It
was a very plain & simple tale. By the by I called it a plain tale — to
which Philips or Aikin absurdly tacked
on a syllable & made it ridiculous — plaintive! it was written at Burton — the mere recital of what happened
near our lodgings.

You will be surprized perhaps at hearing that CowpersWilliam Cowper (1731–1800; DNB), whose works included The Task
(1785). poem does not at all please me. you must have heard it in
some moment when your mind was predisposed to be pleased, & the first
impression has remained. indeed I think it — not above mediocrity — I cannot
trace the Author of the Task in one line. I know that our tastes differ much in
poetry. & yet I think you must like these lines by Charles Lamb. I believe you know his
history — & the dreadful death of his mother.

Thou shouldst have longer lived, & to the graveHave peacefully gone down in full old age.Thy children would have tended thy gray hairs;We might have sat, as we have often done,By our fire side, & talkd whole nights away,Old times, old friends & old events recalling,With many a circumstance of trivial note,To memory dear & of importance grown.How shall we tell them in a strangers ear!A wayward son oft times was I to thee,And yet in all our little bickeringsDomestic jars, there was I know not whatOf tender feeling, that were ill exchangedFor this worlds chilling friendships, & their smilesFamiliar, whom the heart calls strangers still.A heavy lot hath he, most wretched man,Who lives the last of all his family.He looks around him, & his eye discernsThe face of the stranger, & his heart is sick.Man of the World, what canst thou do for him?Wealth is a burthen which he could not bear,Mirth a strange crime the which he dares not act,And generous wines x no
cordial to his soul.For wounds like his Christ is the only cure.Go — preach thou to him of a world to come,Where friends shall meet & know each others faceSay less than this, — & say it to the winds.Published as ‘Written Soon after the
Preceding Poem’, in Charles Lamb and Charles Lloyd, Blank Verse (London, 1798), pp. 84–86.

———

I am aware of the danger of studying simplicity of language. but
you will find in my blank verse a fullness of phrase when the subject requires
it. these lines may instance

it was a goodly sightTo see the embattled pomp, as with the stepOf stateliness the barbed steeds came on,To see the pennons rolling their long wavesBefore the gale, & banners broad & brightTossing their blazonry, & high-plumed ChiefsVidames & Seneschalls & Chastellains,Gay with their bucklers gorgeous heraldryAnd silken surcoats on the buoyant windBillowing. These lines
appeared in Joan of Arc, 2nd edn, 2 vols
(Bristol, 1798), II, pp. 238–240.